'We aren't as equal as we think' NSW Department of Education report finds

The NSW Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli has urged the federal government not to abandon the state's most disadvantaged schools after a new report found that Australian society was far less equal than previously thought.

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Education funding battle recommences

Labor commits to fully funding the Gonski education reforms, but the Government questions the funding. Courtesy ABC News 24.

"We aren't nearly as equal as we like to think," said the report's author Peter Siminski. "The idea of being the lucky country that is full of equal opportunity is looking less and less realistic."

Dr Siminski and co-author Silvia Mendolia from the University of Wollongong found that the ability of Australians to move beyond the socioeconomic status of their family was almost as restricted as those in the US and the UK, which have some of the lowest rates of mobility in the Western world.

The policy has generated deep division between state and federal coalition ministers around the country. Mr Piccoli has repeatedly lobbied his federal colleagues to commit $4.5 billion to the final two years of needs based funding.

"A child doesn't get to choose to be born to parents who are doctors, they don't get to choose to be born to parents who are drug users, it is never the child's fault," said Mr Piccoli.

"We have a responsibility as a society to level the playing field. That is what education is for," he said.

"The Prime Minister has said that his focus is on human capital. We have to give children a better opportunity by investing in their education."

In Federal Parliament last week Mr Turnbull said the government was committed to needs based funding but that the "money first " approach of Gonski was wrong.

Guildford father-of-two David Ghattas said that he had seen first hand the impact that Gonski funding has had on his teenage children.

His son Sarkis and daughter Stephanie attend Merrylands High School, one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged schools in the state.

"My son didn't know what to do with himself a couple of years ago, now he has access to technology programs and support staff. Now he says he wants to be an engineer and my daughter says she wants to be a teacher," said Mr Ghattas.